Larry Wolfe said:Depends on what you're cooking under it and when you put it on. If you put chicken over something that's going to take longer than the chicken to cook it'll be fine. Here's my rationale, if you pull the chicken when it's at a safe temperature and edible, then whatever juices that dripped out of it will also be done, especially if the cut of meat under it takes several additional hours of cooking after the chicken is done. However, I would not add a chicken overtop of a cut of meat that is close to being finished, unless you're going to leave that cut of meat on the cooker until after the chicken is fully cooked.
I think the bottomline is it comes down to common sense. If you put a chicken over top of a cut of meat and a half an hour later you pull the meat under the meat, then chances are you're going to get very ill.
DaleP said:It has been brought to my attention that it is safe 'basically just like Larry said" and if common sense is used then I agree it is OK but why take the chance? I'm not the brightest crayon in the box but I dont see me cooking chicken over a brisket anytime soon. chicken drippings, no thanks.
No, no, drippings.jminion said:I don't like the flavor of chicken droppings on beef and pork.
SoEzzy said:But there is more than one way to cook your chicken!
Get yourself some baking / cooling racks that fit into 9" x 13" pans, and I'll bet you already have the 9" x 13" pans in the kitchen cupboard.
Stand the cooling rack in the pan on its tallest legs, put the chicken on the rack, then put the pans in the smoker. The chicken can drip to its heart content, the drippings are caught, so you don't end up with them on your beef, and the smoke can swirl all around the chicken for flavor.
Wow, what a technique! Lets call it the “SoEzzys Separation Secretâ€
jminion said:I don't like the flavor of chicken droppings on beef and pork.